Humanlike Design of Synthia’s Body

In Android Chronicles: Reborn, Synthia’s creator (Jeremiah Machten) is motivated by two things—to create a perfect android companion and to develop a tool he can use to spy on and steal from his competitors and anyone else involved in the creation of artificial intelligence and androids. He acquires components to build her body from Korean and Japanese robot designers and modifies her to look, walk, and move like a person. This way she can fit in, pass for human, and slide in and out of human encounters without drawing notice to herself when she does his dirty work.

Already, Japanese robot manufacturers are creating androids that have the rudimentary appearance of humans with four limbs and a head. Separately, they’re working on facial appearance that closely mimics human expressions. Thus, Synthia is a logical extension of developmental work taking place today.

But Machten wasn’t satisfied with what he could buy. Instead, he enhanced Synthia. He gave her micro hydraulics that allows her to adjust her appearance, including eye separation to fool facial recognition software. This allows her to appear in public multiple times without drawing a connection that it’s the same individual.

He adjusted the seams of her artificial skin to make her waterproof, though the presence of water and electricity sends static warnings through her system. He also adjusts her scalp so that he can firmly attach wigs and allow her to change those quickly, again to conceal her identity in public when she does his bidding.

Because Synthia’s brain and mobility consumes so much power, Machten adapts the best battery technology in the world to fit within her chest to power her systems for two days without recharging. In other words, he makes her superior to all other AI androids he knows of.